Japanese role-playing games

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Sword World 2.0, the newest edition of the most popular role-playing game in 90's Japan

GURPS Runal, the most successful GURPS supplement in Japan

Alshard, one of the most popular J-RPG in 21st century

Japanese role-playing games have been developed since the late 1980s. Now there are over hundreds Japanese-designed games and several translated games. Traditional role-playing games are called Tabletalk RPG or TRPG in Japan to distinguish them from the video game genre of the same name.

1 History
2 Japanese games
3 Translated games
4 Replays
5 RPG magazines
6 References
7 See also
8 External links

[edit] History

In 1970s, only few Japanese gamers were aware of the existence of role-playing games and were playing English language role-playing games. Then, in 1980s, computer role-playing games including Wizardry and Ultima were introduced to Japan. Several computer game magazines also introduced traditional role-playing games.

Classic Traveller was first translated RPG in 1984, quickly followed by Dungeons & Dragons in 1985. The first Japanese-designed traditional RPG, Roads to Lord, was published in 1984. Group SNE pioneered a new book genre called replay in late 1980s. Replays are RPG session logs arranged as publications. The first replay, Record of Lodoss War, is a replay of Dungeons and Dragons that had been published in Comptiq magazine since 1986. Replays and novels of Record of Lodoss War started a fantasy and role-playing game boom. The typical format of replays as follows:^[1]

Game master: In this scene, you should think the reason why your PCs team up the party with each other.
Amu: Well, I will visit Eiji's home, because Eiji became an adventurer. At last, he will repay the money he borrowed from me.
Eiji: Hi, Amu. I became an adventurer at long last. Please lend your money to me again.(Haha.) I don't have money, because I bought chainmail.

Sword World RPG published in 1989 became very popular quickly. Sword World's world, Forcelia, includes Lodoss island of Record of Lodoss War. The reason why it was such a success is analyzed as follows.^[2]

The designers took ideas from many famous American games including D&D, AD&D, MERP and RuneQuest and modified the settings to suit Japanese tastes.
Sword World RPG had the advantage over (A)D&D and other games of the same age about flexible multi-class system. Its multi-class system had fewer restrictions.
It used only ordinary 6-sided dice. Other polyhedral dice are uncommon especially in rural Japan.
It was tied up with light novels and replays.
The paperback (bunkobon) rulebooks are inexpensive and portable.

Notable role-playing games in late 80's and early 90's are as follows:

1988	Wizardry RPG	Group SNE	RPG version of Wizardry
1989	Sword World RPG	Group SNE
1989	Record of Lodoss War Companion	Group SNE
1990	Blue Forest Story	1st ed. Tsukuda Hobby 2nd ed. FarEast Amusement Research F.E.A.R. (1996)	Fantasy world similar to Southeast Asia
1991	Gear Antique	1st ed. Tsukuda Hobby 2nd ed. F.E.A.R (1999)	Steampunk RPG
1992	Crystania Companion	Group SNE
1992	GURPS Runal	Group SNE
1993	Tokyo NOVA	F.E.A.R.
1994	GURPS Youmayakou	Group SNE	English title: GURPS Damned Stalkers
1996	Seven Fortress	F.E.A.R.	Popular fantasy RPG

Definitely, Group SNE was a leading role-playing game company in Japan until the 1990s. In late 1990s, the RPG boom ended (see History of role-playing games). Role-playing games were defeated by trading card games (TCGs) such as Magic: The Gathering, and most RPG magazines were discontinued or changed into TCG magazines. This period is called the winter age of TRPG by Japanese gamers.

Spring has come since about 1999-2002. Notable role-playing games in this age are Blade of Arcana (1999), Double Cross (2001), Night Wizard! (2002) and Alshard (2002). They are all made by F.E.A.R. that grew to be a new leading RPG company in Japan.

[edit] Japanese games

See also: List of Japanese role-playing games by genre

In Japan, domestically-made role-playing games are competitive in the market. Despite the smallness of the market, a lot of original products are published. For example, 95 domestically-made RPG rulebooks (exclude supplements) were published from 2000 to 2007. In the same period of time, 25 translated RPG rulebooks were published.^[3] D&D achieves significant popularity, but it doesn’t dominate the market because of existence of the big competitors.

An orthodox fantasy RPG produced by Group SNE, Sword world RPG has been popular since 1990s. There is little novelty in the setting, but it is a comprehensible fantasy. In addition, there are several original settings for GURPS made by Group SNE. Most games of SNE were tied up with light novels or anime such as Record of Lodoss War and Rune Soldier. Their works strongly influenced early light novels and Japanese fantasy.

F.E.A.R. games are more heroic and more dramatic. All player characters of Tokyo NOVA, Blade of Arcana and Alshard are already mighty heroes who possess supreme powers at the character creation. And several connection rules represent dramatic human relationships. In many cases, the settings of fantasy RPG made by F.E.A.R. are mixed fantasy world that firearms and androids are present. Console and computer RPG has a profound influence on them, for example, Alshard is inspired by Final Fantasy and Arianrhod RPG is inspired by Ragnarok Online.

Adventure Planning Service that produced Meikyu kingdom and SATASUPE prefer cynically tongue-in-cheek settings. In their games, capricious dice often disturb the stories.

This section is a stub.

[edit] Translated games

The most popular translated role-playing game is Dungeons and Dragons, which was translated 5 times. (Classic D&D 4th ed., AD&D 2nd ed., D&D Rules Cyclopedia, D&D 3rd ed. and v3.5)

Several Japanese original products of d20 system are developed, such as Torch Port[1] - an original D&D city campaign setting , Metal Head d20[2] - a d20 version of the Japanese first developed cyberpunk RPG released in 1990 and Wares Blade d20 - a d20 version of popular fantasy Mecha RPG Wares Blade[3] released in 1989.

Other famous translated systems include Cyberpunk 2020, Call of Cthulhu, Earthdawn, GURPS, Rolemaster, RuneQuest, Shadowrun, Stormbringer, Torg and World of Darkness systems.

Especially, Call of Cthulhu, GURPS, Shadowrun, Stormbringer (including Elric!), Traveller, Tunnels and Trolls, Warhammer Fantasy and World of Darkness were translated several times each different editions. Even Japanese original modified edition of several games were released such as RuneQuest 90's and Hyper Tunnels and Trolls.

[edit] Replays

In Japan, a lot of RPG session logs called replay are commercially-published^[4]. Replays are more popular than novels as RPG-related books. Not only replays of Japanese games but also replays of translated American games such as GURPS, Dungeons & Dragons and Shadowrun are published.

[edit] RPG magazines

Several RPG magazines are published in Japan at the moment.

Role & Roll (R&R) - Monthly, since 2003, it focuses on games of Group SNE, Adventure Planning Service, F.E.A.R. and other companies.
Gamers Field (GF) - Bimonthly, since 1996,the official magazine for only F.E.A.R. games.
Kikan RPG - Quarterly, since 2007, it's former title is RPGamer. It focuses on d20 system products and on indie role-playing games.
GAME JAPAN - Monthly, it is not a RPG magazine, but a few pages support D&D, WFRP and Hobby Japan's products.
Dragon Magazine - Bimonthly, Sword World RPG and Arianrhod RPG are supported in it.
Charano! - Monthly, Dungeons & Dragons replays are serialized in it.

[edit] References

^ KIKUCHI, Takeshi (2004). Arianrhod RPG Replay.
^ KATSURA, Norio (Autumn 2006). "Fantasy TRPG Chronicle". RPGamer 15: 8.
^ "RPG old and present, east and west (RPG Kokon-tozai, RPG old and present, east and west^?)" (January 2008). Role & Roll 40: 16.
^ For example, 43 books of Sword World RPG's replays are published until July 2007.